The Deseret alphabet is a phonetic alphabet developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah) under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the board of regents. The two main contributors to character development were George D. Watt and Parley P. Pratt. Phonetics (from the Greek word phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The University of Utah (also The U or the U of U) was established by Mormon leader Brigham Young. ... Brigham Young (June 1, 1801 – August 29, 1877) was the second prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church; see also Mormonism). ... The Salt Lake City temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest attraction in the citys Temple Square. ... Parley Parker Pratt (1807–1857) (commonly known as Parley P. Pratt) was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of The Quorum of Twelve Apostles from 1835 until his murder in 1857. ...

The alphabet was intended to replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternate, more phonetically accurate alphabet for the English Language. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, which is often less phonetically consistent than many other languages. Similar experiments were not uncommon during the period, and some of the more well known results include Pitman Shorthand, Shavian, and a Cherokee alphabet. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Pitman Shorthand is a system of rapid writing developed by Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897). ... Posthumously funded by and named for Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, the Shavian alphabet (also known as Shaw alphabet) was conceived as a way to provide simple, phonetic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of the conventional spelling. ... Alternate meanings: Cherokee (disambiguation) The Cherokee are a people native to North America who first inhabited what is now the eastern and southeastern United States before most were forcefully moved to the Ozark Plateau. ...

Another goal in creating the Deseret Alphabet was to offer all faithful Mormons a unifying script that might encourage a sense of community among recent European converts. The term Mormon is a colloquial name referring to Latter Day Saints, derived in the 1830s from the Book of Mormon, one of their scriptures, whose purported Native American author was named Mormon. ... A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ...

Contrary to what some people believe, the Deseret Alphabet was never considered to be the same as the reformed Egyptian characters in which the original Book of Mormon was reputedly written. The Book of Mormon (a sacred text of Mormonism) states that it was written with reformed Egyptian (Mormon 9:32) characters on plates of ore (1 Nephi 19:1) by Messianic Israelite prophets between 600 B.C. and A.D. 421. ...

The Deseret Alphabet went through at least three major revisions during its first few years. At least three books were published in the new alphabet (The First Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Second Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Book of Mormon, and a First Nephi-Omni) as well various articles and New Testament passages published in the Deseret News on a press obtained by Orson Pratt, who estimated that the cost of printing a regular library would be over one million dollars. Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints edition) The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of Mormonism first published in Palmyra, New York, USA, in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Orson Pratt was a Mormon who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. ...

Although heavily publicized by the Deseret News, and promoted by Brigham Young, the alphabet never became widely accepted, and fell into disuse about twenty-five years after its creation. Contemporary reports showed most Utahns were reluctant to abandon conventional English script for everyday matters. The Deseret Morning News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Utahs oldest continually published daily newspaper. ... Brigham Young (June 1, 1801 – August 29, 1877) was the second prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church; see also Mormonism). ...

Shortly after Brigham Young's death in 1877, his successor, John Taylor, ended all official funding and publicity for the alphabet. Scholars argue that associated expenses were among the major reasons for the alphabet's failure. Material printed in the Deseret Alphabet can sell for considerable sums among collectors of Mormon antiques. 1877 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... John Taylor, third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints John Taylor (November 1, 1808 - July 25, 1887) was the third President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1877 to 1887. ...

Unicode standard 3.1 includes the Deseret alphabet in positions 10400 to 1044F. (Most combinations of operating systems, Web browsers, and installed font sets will not be able to display this table correctly.) In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ...

External links

• Unicode Code Chart, 10400-1044F (Deseret), retrieved from http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10400.pdf
• Colorado History page
• The Deseret Alphabet at Omniglot